


When Apologies Aren't Enough (And Maybe Not Needed)

by EverestV



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, I'm not sure what this is or why this is, No Storm in Arcadia Bay, Years Later, but yeah...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-02-01
Packaged: 2018-09-21 09:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9541565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EverestV/pseuds/EverestV
Summary: Prompt: “I walked in on your ex yelling at you so you grabbed me and kissed me so she’d go away and I’m kind of freaked out I literally just met you last week” AU





	

“No, no, tell me. Just say it, just say what the hell you _ want _ from me.” Rachel is smoldering where she stands, molten and simmering and sparking like a flame. Something’s building in the air between us—rising heat, growing humidity, the precursors of a lightning storm—and for once it's not me who's setting the kindling for an argument. There's no sudden eruption, no instantaneous wildfire. That’s not her. No, she is slow and steady, a sloping incline, not a vertical cliff face. She is progression but that doesn’t mean she leaves room for you to get away. It’s only dimly familiar, but captivating to watch. And taking the time to appreciate her unique brand of anger instead of retaliating against it...what does that say about me? About this, right here and now, about us?

“Rachel, it's just...” I look at her and it’s hard to hold that gaze. I’ve never seen her eyes this gray. “I mean  _ shit _ , you don’t even talk to me anymore, you just—”

She scoffs, rolls her eyes, rolls her shoulders, leans back and forward in one exaggerated motion, and it makes me stiffen. “I don’t  _ talk _ to you anymore? What are we, twelve? I have to be attached to your hip at all times now?”

“That’s not what I mean.” We both hear it, the lack of frustration in my voice, the surplus of exhaustion and patience, placating her for all I’m worth. I look down at my arms, crossing over my chest, but catch a glimpse at the way it sets her off. She is a hurricane, a danger that we both realize is no longer a threat to me. But that just makes her wind and rain grow stronger.

“You  _ fucking _ ...it’s simple: you don’t get to do that, act all high and mighty,  _ now _ of all times.” Her words bite, her words are white-hot iron, but her voice is growing shrill and brittle. I lean back against the wall. “Don’t pretend like you’re all above this—”

“I’m not,”

“Like you’re so goddamn removed, like you can fucking separate yourself from this.” She’s barrelling on, hands waving and providing a kind of puncturing percussion to her argument. “Don’t you even  _ dare _ pretend to be the righteous one right now—”

“That’s not what this is.”

“Because you can’t do this, you can’t step back, not now, not when I... it’s just not fucking  _ fair _ , alright?! It’s not right.”

I can see her crumpling and I almost reach forward. “Rachel,”

She jerks backward, a watery fire burning bright in her eyes, eyes like charcoal. “No, stop,  _ fuck _ you! I know what it sounds like, alright?, but I’m not some little kid! Don’t treat me like I am, don’t act like you— li-like I’m just something you have to  _ endure _ , don’t...” Now she looks away, folding in on herself, fists shaking at her sides. My arms fall as I lean toward her, trying to catch her gaze.

“Look, Rach, if you need something from me, I don’t know what you expect me to do about it when you don’t just say what it is. I’m not a mind reader.” Her eyes snap up and I push forward before another  _ fuck you _ can take its aim. “That’s what I was trying to say before. You don’t talk, you don’t let me in. Like you can’t trust me or something. I haven’t changed, Rach, I’m still right here, I’m still the same me. But you...look, it just feels like you don't have a space for me anymore. And if that's it, then just say it. Because maybe that's what you— what we need.” I wait, expecting words like fists or escaping tears and bared teeth. But she drops like a stone, crouches on the floor with knees pulled up, as if they could protect her chest from abstract threats. If she thinks that I, of all people, am gonna fall for it, then...she should know better by now. “Rach, you're not disagreeing.”

“Shut up.”

“See, this is what I mean. You close off and I'm left trying to figure out what the hell you're thinking about. I mean this is the most you've said to me in the past few weeks and now you're done?”

“You need to stop talking.”

“Well will you start if I stop?”

She doesn’t reply, or even look away from the tops of her knees.

“Rachel, we can't keep—” Rushed footsteps make me look up, just for a second, and I meet the eyes of my nerdy neighbor, just for a second. She quickly ducks her head and looks away as she comes up the stairs and heads toward her apartment. Rachel doesn’t seem to notice. “We can’t keep going around in circles like this, alright? I think we just need to walk away from this.” No reply. My neighbor can’t seem to find her keys. “Rachel, I think you need to leave.”

Finally I’m worth her attention, and when she looks up her eyes are glassy and hard and her shoulders are raised like hackles on a cornered animal. She’s glaring at me, but I’m not surprised and it doesn’t hurt. “Or what?”

I hold her gaze as my jaw works, looking down at her with arms at my sides.  _ Fuck it, right? Fuck everything. _ Before I can talk myself out of it, I spin on my heel and reach for my neighbor, hand on her cheek, eyes closing, as I pull her forward until my lips are nudging at hers, pleading. I almost jump when she kisses back immediately.

“What the fuck, who the hell is—” Rachel’s boots thud against the floor as she stands and I can feel her smolder and burn again behind me. I’ll admit it, for a minute I consider giving her the finger, but instead my hand falls away from my neighbor’s cheek and my arm loops around her shoulder,  _ painfully _ casual, resting high on her back as if I’m about to dip her. That does it. “And  _ I’m _ the...shit, you’re a fucking child, Chloe Price.” The lack of any emotion besides frustration in her voice confirms it, confirms that she was just hanging onto us— hanging onto  _ me _ by a thread.  _ She’ll be fine, don’t freak. She needs this. And so do you. _

The thing is, once I hear the door slam downstairs, my neighbor is still kissing me. I extract myself from her slowly. “Uh, thanks, your, um, work here is done. I really appreciate you not slapping me and all.”

“O-Oh, you’re...you’re welcome, um. Sorry.” She takes a step back and and I’m surprised she doesn’t look away. Her cheeks are flushed, making every single freckle rise to the surface of her skin, but she’s meeting my gaze without hesitation. Her eyes are bright and whole and open and her hand reaches up to rub at her nose, like an instinctive precaution.

I smile a bit, lean back on my heels. “No, I should be sorry for dragging you into that.”

“I kissed back, didn't I?” She shrugs and I have to tell myself not to laugh at my knight in graphic tee armor. “I just wanted to help.”

“How much did you hear, exactly?”

At this her smile fades. “Uh, well, probably more than I should have...”

“And do you think I'm a shitty person?” Her eyes jump to my face like it's some kind of test. “For kissing you in front of my girlfriend like— in front of Rachel like that?”

“You're asking  _ me _ ?”

“I just, it was the only way to make her give up and walk away, you’ve gotta believe me. I know her, I've picked up on these kinds of things.” My arms cross over my chest and I have to convince myself that I don’t need to avoid her gaze, with her head tilting and attention singular. “She latches onto anything familiar or comfortable like a lifeline, no matter how broken or messy it is. And it’s not loyalty, it’s just blatant masochism. It was the only way to make her let go.”

“You don’t have to validate yourself to me.” Conveniently, her keys were in her pocket the entire time and she unlocks her door with little effort. “It’s none of my business, I know that. If I helped then I’m glad. Either way, I’m sorry about the break-up.”

I shove my fists in my pockets, feeling stupid. “Don’t be, it’s probably for the better. But, uh, I hope this was a ‘welcome to the apartment’ that you weren’t expecting. Everybody likes surprises, right? I’m Chloe, by the way.”

“Max. It was nice kissing you.”

“Meeting you, you mean?”

“Both.”


End file.
